Malahide Road.

CHAPTER XV.

The Malahide Road.

Malahide Road, which is skirted by the wall of Marino, is one of the most cheerful highways near Dublin. Firstly, it passes in its course to Malahide through a continuous succession of villages. Donnycarney, Artane Coolock, Balgriffin, St. Dolough’s, Kinsaley and Feltrim succeed each other at short intervals. The road passes many pleasant country seats and richly cultivted farms. In agriculture the North County Dublin is the most progressive district in Ireland. Besides this source of pleasure to the traveller the road is a typical centre of a prosperous inland scene, and yet is not too far from the coast.

Pleasant glimpses of the sea and the rocky shores of Howth and Ireland’s Eye are caught. There are some unique views of the latter island from Malahide Road. In the grounds of the O’Brien Institute to the left of the road is the Temple or Casino designed by Sir William Chambers and erected by Lord Charlemont on a Grecian model. Both the building and its surroundings are eminently picturesque. The village of Donnycarney is next reached. (There is a place of nearly the same name in the County of Louth.) The road crosses the little stream called the Holly Brook, which flows through the grounds of Thorndale, by Scurlogue’s Bridge, now Donnycarney Bridge, and into the sea at Strandville Avenue, Clontarf.

Beyond this bridge is the Artane Industrial School directed by the Christian Brothers. This splendid institution, founded in 1870, occupies the site of Artane Castle, long the property of the Hollywood family, one of whom was one of the most celebrated of the early Jesuits in Ireland, Father Christopher Hollywood, or, as he is styled in Latin, Christophorus a Sacro Bosco.

[In the 1960’s many children were subjected to sexual abuse and violence at Artane Industrial School and other institutions. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has apologised on behalf of the government, the State and its citizens to all those who had suffered abuse as children. The Christian Brothers have also apologised to the former inmates of the industrial schools. A goverment Commission has been set up to interview victims and build up a picture of the causes, nature and extent of the abuse. Click here for an article which supplies further details. KF2000]

In 1534 Artane Castle was the scene of a historic tragedy. John Allen, Archbishop of Dublin, who owed his advancement to Cardinal Wolsey, shared his hostility to the Geraldines. when therefore in this year the rebellion of Silken Thomas broke out, Allen attempted to fly to England.

He embarked, we are told, in “the little haven at Dame Gate,” near Dublin Castle which is very far west of any possible place of embarkation nowadays. (Dame Gate was the eastern extremity of Dublin then. being next to the Church of Our Lady del Dam, from which Dame Street takes its name.)

But the prelate’s voyage was not destined to be long. He was stranded at Clontarf, whether through tempest or treachery is not clear. Had he sought his temporary refuge at Clontarf Island he would, perhaps, have been safe, and might easily have embarked on another ship.

But he went inland to the house of his friend Hollywood of Artane, where he was soon sought. On the next day, the 28th of July, he was dragged from the Castle and inhumanly murdered by the followers of Silken Thomas. The spot where this cruel deed was perpetrated was left neglected for centuries until some of the buildings of the Industrial School were erected on it. (The next Archbishop, sent from England, was George Browne, the first to support Henry VIII. in his schism from Rome.)

Old Artane Castle was succeeded by the house, which is now the residence of the Christian Brothers, in 1825. This house was the residence for some time in his boyhood of the distinguished soldier and author, General Sir William Butler.

Nearly opposite the gate of Artane School is a narrow road called Killester Lane, traversing the old parish of that name, and leading to the Howth Road at the entrance of the once splendid residence of Killester House, where there is still a path called the Nuns’ Walk. The Ordnance maps mark a building “Convent in ruins” not far from this on the Howth Road. There is a modern house called Killester Abbey. The ruins of the old Church of Killester are in the churchyard adjoining Killester Lane. It was dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare. Killester district has belonged for many centuries to the Howth family.

The first turn to the left, having passed the Industrial School, leads, by a road running parallel to the Malahide and Swords Roads, to the latter highway at the village of Cloghran or, as it is sometimes called, Cloghran Swords, to distinguish it from Cloghran Huddart (locally pronounced “Heather”) in the western part of the county.

This road passes another churchyard with another old ruined Church dedicated to St. Nicholas. Having passed a boreen called Skelly’s Lane the town-land of Kilmore is traversed. In the garden of a house on the right, are two large statues representing Queen Victoria and her husband the Prince Consort. These figures, as they represent Victoria and Albert in their youth, may perhaps date from shortly after their marriage on the 10th of February, 1840.

Farther on the way to Cloghran a little village called Cock and Rabbit is passed. The name seems to come from the sign of an inn, and, though well-known in Fingal, is never marked on the maps. An eighteenth-century map, however marks Silver Hill and Golden Valley in this district. The well-wooded and secluded district which succeeds is called Clonshagh, anciently Glynshagh.

Following the Malahide Road from Artane we cross, at Artane Bridge, the Naniken River which, rising in Beaumont, falls into the sea after flowing through the demesne of St. Anne’s, Dollymount.

The next village is Coolock which gives name to this Barony. It is the largest village on the road, and the church here is dedicated to St. Brendan of Kerry, whose feast occurs on the 16th of May.

As already mentioned, Moatfield on the left, with the moat on the lawn, was the residence in boyhood of Charles Lever whose father built the house.

(Readers of Lever’s Maurice Tiernay will remember that the hero, born in France of Irish extraction, takes part in the temporary success and ultimate defeat of the French in Ireland in 1798. In the course of the story he takes up his residence with one Tiernay a farmer near Baldoyle. Lever evidently studied that district from Moatfield.)

On a road parallel to the high road which is reached by the turn on the right beyond Coolock, but more shortly from Raheny, the picturesque ruins of Grange Abbey may be seen. Coolock district belongs to the Domvilles of Santry.

(‘On the east of Coolock village, “Shilling Glass” is marked on old maps. Perhaps it was the sign of an inn.)

The first turn at left some distance beyond Coolock traverses the district of Belcamp, interesting as the birthplace of Henry Grattan. His father’s country residence was here and two of his biographers say that he was born here. The others do not commit themselves to any statement on the subject.3

(It is known positively that he was baptized at St. John’s Church, Fishamble Street, Dublin, on the 3rd of July, 1746. The precise day of his birth does not seem to be known. His father, James Grattan, Recorder of Dublin, and member of Parliament for the City, was a member of the Conservative party, of that day. Disapproving of what he considered Henry’s advanced National views he took care that the latter should not inherit Belcamp, which had been a long time in the Grattan family. Miss Olivia Whitmore, cousin of Henry Grattan, was married to Arthur Guinness of Beaumdnt, great grandfather ot Lords Ardilaun and Iveagh)

A subsequent possessor was Sir Edward Newenham, many years member for the County of Dublin. Newenham was a great admirer of George Washington and corresponded with him. Sir Jonah Barrington gives a ludicrous account of this correspondence, but Sir Jonah’s statements must often be discounted.

There is still at Belcamp, which now belongs to the Oblate Fathers, a small tower with an inscription, built by Newenham in honour of Washington in 1778. That Newenham should have been allowed by the Government to erect this tower, even on his own grounds, at that time seems somewhat surprising when we consider the condition of things in 1778. Already the War of Independence of. the revolted American colonies had been raging for three years.

(In 1776 the Declaration of Independence had been issued. In 1777 the British commander Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga to the Americans, and in 1778, the year the tower was erected here, France espoused the now thriving cause of the Americans, sending some of her Irish Brigade to the last war they ever fought in. Spain and Holland were soon to follow France’s example, and the war was to drag on for four more weary years until, after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, England was to acknowledge American Independence. Yet under all these circumstances the Government allowed Sir Edward Newenham to erect with impunity the Washington tower at Belcamp. Perhaps the authorities were deterred from interfering by the sympathy felt for the Americans by the then powerful Irish Volunteers.)

The next village on the Malahide Road is Balgriffin, once the property of the celebrated Red Hugh O’Neill. The next is St. Dolough’s, where there is a famous old Church dedicated to that saint, whose feast occurs on the 17th of November. The old Church has a strong stone roof like the Saxon churches, six centuries old and still good. St. Dolough’s bed of penance and St. Catherine’s Well are also here and an old High Cross. The roof of the Church, which is on a height, commands an extensive and beautiful view. St. Dolough was also the patron of the Church at Sloghran Swords.

Passing a country road on the left called Baskin Lane the village of Kinsaley is entered. Here there is a modern Catholic Church, begun in 1832, dedicated to St. Nicholas of Tolentino of the Augustinian Order, whose feast is on the 10th of September. But the old Church. here was dedicated for centuries to St. Nicholas of Myra to whom the 6th of December is sacred.

Continuing our course on the high road we pass on the left Abbeville House, often misspelled Abbeybille, built by the powerful John Beresford, who resided here, then the village of Feltrim is reached, and the turn to the left leads to the Hill of Feltrim, the highest eminence of the inland part of Coolock Barony. Feltrim and Effernock belonged to the Fagan family from the middle of the sixteenth century until the forfeitures which followed the Catholic defeat at the Boyne.

The house, which has disappeared, was on Feltrim Hill. The summit is now crowned by the ruins of a windmill, a conspicuous object for miles around. The view of Fingal, Portrane, Howth, the sea and the islands is one of the finest in the county. A quarry is on one side of the hill, but the other is still covered with briers, and its wild aspect easily explains the name Feltrim which means “ridge of wolves.” The pleasant prospect of well-cultivated fields and fine crops is also to be seen in this neighbourhood.

In the reign of Elizabeth the Earl of Desmond was committed to the custody of Christopher Fagan of Feltrim who informed the Government that he would not act as his gaoler and generously permitted him to escape to Munster. Not far from, Feltrim is the old house of Drynam, built in the reign of Charles I. The Fagans had property in the city near St. Werburgh’s Gate and it is remarkable that in a field to the left of the road which leads from the hill to Swords there is a well of St. Werburgh.

St. Werburgh was patroness of a church in Bristol, and Henry II. granted Dublin “to the men of Bristol.” This was the origin of the introduction of her patronage into Dublin. She was a Saxon princess and nun who died in 683 and her feast is kept on the 3rd of February.

(She is one of the trinity of little known saints to whom parishes in the city of Dublin were dedicated; the other two being St. Audoen or Onen, Bishop of Rouen, who also died in 683, having his feast on the 24th of August, and St. Michan,, whose feast is the following day, the 25th of August, a Danish bishop of whom little is known.)

The highway, passing the fine demesne of Malahide Castle, emters Malahide, a place which is not as well known to Dubliners and tourists in general as it deserv6s to be. It is a Station on the Northern Railway within easy reach of Dublin. Lambay Island, Portrane, Donabate, Rush, Lusk, Skerries, Balbriggan and other interesting places in Fingal are not far away.

Malahide itself is beautifully situated on the outer corner of a bay formed by the confluence of two rivers. Here are a fine hotel, a good strand, golf links and most interesting coast and inland scenery. Many of the places recently traversed in this sketch, Feltrim, Kinsaley, St. Dolough’s, etc., are only a short distance off. Two miles inland is the interesting old borough of Swords. The road to it passes the ruin of Seatown Castle on the coast, once inhabited by the Russell family.

But the most interesting inland place is the Castle and Demesne of Lord Talbot de Malahide, which is usually open to the public. The title dates from 1831 but the Talbot family have been in possession of Malahide since 1174. The oldest part of the Castle is as old as that time. It contains an antique room wainscotted with Irish oak, but its chief ornament is the picture gallery which includes several old and interesting historical pictures, the most famous being a picture of the Nativity of Our Lord, which was once an altar-piece in the Chapel of Holyrood Palace and belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots. It is said to have been painted by Albert Durer.

In the ruined chapel beside the Castle is the tomb of the wife of Sir Richard Talbot who lived in the fifteenth century. This was Maud Plunkett who had been previously married to Hussey, son of the Baron of Galtrim in Meath, who was slain on his wedding day. On this incident is founded Gerald Griffin’s ballad, The Bridal of Malahide.

(The Talbots of Carton, Maynooth, were cousins of the Malahide Talbots. Two younger spms of Sir William Talbot, Bart., of Carton were amongst the most famous Irishmen of the seventeenth century. One was Peter Talbot who entered the Society of Jesus in his youth and remained in it many years. Having left it he became a secular priest, and was in 1669 appointed by the Pope Archbishop of Dublin. He died in prison in 1680 being accused in connection with the Irish branch of Titus Oates’ Plot. Had he survived a few months longer he would have been martyred along with his fellow prisoner the Blessed Oliver Plunket. The Archbishop’s brother was Richard Talbot, created Earl of Tyrconnel, a faithful adherent of Charles II. and James II. In the reign of the latter he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, being the last Catholic who held that position. He was in possession at one time of an estate in the southern part of the County Dublin, Terenure, now the Carmelite College. Tyrconnell fought for James in the war and died in Limerick during the siege. His widow founded the Convent of Poor Clares in North King Street, already referred to.)

Malahide Demesne has as magnificent specimens of forest trees as are to be found in the British Isles. Near Malahide is Sea Park, built by Nicholas Morres who married a lady of the Talbot family. His son was in the Irish Brigade. The new water supply of the town is from the Ward River. There is a little harbour with some trade in coal and salt, and an oyster-bed.

As there are Lombard and French names beside Swords so the Spanish and Quixotic name of La Mancha is found beside Malahide, and the war-like Spanish name of Talavera just outside Baldoyle. The latter is evidently called after the town of Talavera della Reyna on the Tagus where Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, defeated the French in July, 1809, exactly one hundred years ago.

The most attractive environs of Malahide are those on the sea, which is here overhung, as well as the town, by the eminence called Carrick Hill. But take the coast road from the town, and in a short time the old tower of Robertswall Castle is reached. This warden of a lonely shore was erected by the De Birminghams in the fifteenth century. It stands on a bold rocky coast where there was a well called Tubbermaclaney which has disappeared, though there is now another spring not far away. As if by enchantment the rough precipitous shore suddenly gives place to the beautiful Velvet Strand, one of the greatest beauty spots of the County Dublin and still too little known, although it has been much frequented by motorists for the last few years. Portmarnock Railway Station is quite convenient to it. To see it all it should be entered by the way called Ferny Gutter.

There are two other entrances called Church Gap and Caulfield’s Gap. Not only is this Strand the finest to be found for many miles from Dublin, but its outlook is unique. Lambay is not very distant and Ireland’s Eye shoots its rocky mass precipitously up from the ocean at apparently a stone’s throw. The aspect of Howth too from this point will be found quite unfamiliar by those who usually view the headland from the southern or city side.

John D’Alton does not mention the name, although it existed when he wrote, of the Velvet Strand, but his pleasure in it was extreme, and he seems, like many a Dublin resident of to-day, to have come upon it by surprise, and to have written of it as a discovery. His description is worth quoting:-

“Presently valleys of dazzling sands appeared opening to the sea, and in some places exhibiting a scanty vegetation, but more usually the bare tracks of rabbits. Then such a lovely strand, so white, so firm, so curiously inlaid with every specimen of shells; the silent sunny sandy cliffs at left; the blue sea at right, foaming its white wreaths over the whole shore, and in the distance Howth, apparently insulated, and Ireland’s Eye, and further yet Lambay enveloped in vapour. The black rocky shore of Tobbermackeany succeeded, its dangerous aspect being fatally illustrated by the masts of a sunken vessel, that pointed above the full tide at a short distance from its ledge, and over which the gulls were wildly screaming.”

Portmarnock derives its name from the same saint as Robert Burns’s Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. The Plunketts have lived in Portmarnock for many years. Students of Fingallian antiquities will observe how many old castles belonged to the Plunketts and the Barnewalls. The latter are Normans of the Pale, but the Plunketts are Scandinavian, probably Norwegians like most Fingallians and not descended from the Danes. The Plunketts are known to have been in Ireland at least a century before the Norman invasion, and one family of them bears the title Earl of Fingall.

Other Scandinavian surnames in Fingal are Segrave, Seaver, Sweetman (Swedeman), Harold, Dowdall, Grimley, Derham, Harford, Dromgoole and Hamlet.

The surnames of Fottrell, Yourell, Butterly and Bobbett, found mostly in Fingal, are also probably of like origin. Most of the inhabitants of North County Dublin, like those of the northern half of Leinster in general, bear surnames indicative of Ulster origin. The Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin was founded in 852 and lasted over three centuries. While it lasted St. Mary’s Abbey, Christ Church, St. Michan’s and many other churches were founded and Dublin began to be an important city.

The ruin of the old Church at Portmarnock exhibits a belfry pierced to swing two bells. This singular arrangement of a double belfry is almost peculiar to Fingal, being found in many churches of the district.

Approaching Baldoyle from Portmarnock there is a ferry to the Portmarnock Golf Links across the inlet. This arm of the sea separates the mainland from the long sandy peninsula of Portmarnock which terminates in Portmarnock Point opposite Cush Point in Sutton. Baldoyle is widely known for its racecourse, and is the property of the Corporation of Dublin to whom it was granted in reward for its opposition to the rebellion of Silken Thomas.

Returning from Baldoyle the village of Raheny is passed. It is pleasantly situated on the Santry River, and the church erected by Lord Ardilaun is worthy of attention for its architecture.

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